Ramesh Shrestha

Hiring of Nepali workers by Qatar has increased significantly with the gulf nation intensifying the development of infrastructure in preparation for the FIFA World Cup 2022. The Department of Foreign Employment’s data shows that a total of 15,702 Nepali workers left the country for employment in Qatar in the first month (mid-July to mid-Aug) of the current fiscal year. The figure also includes workers returning Qatar after vacation in Nepal. This is a three-fold growth compared to 5726 individuals who migrated to Qatar in the same period last year. However, the last year’s data does not include those returning back to work after vacation. 

“Compared to other labour destinations, hiring from Qatar has increased significantly for huge infrastructure projects,” said Kumud Khanal, general secretary of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies. Khanal added that Nepali workers in the construction sector, who normally used to get normally 600 riyal a month, are now being given 800-1,000 riyal due to shortage of construction workers.

In the Qatari capital of Doha, the ongoing construction boom is poised to move up several gears as work kicks off in 2012 under the massive infrastructure programme in preparation for the World Cup. Qatar is expected to see a huge growth in the migrant population during the run-up to the World Cup when infrastructure investments are expected to top $100 billion, according to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)’s report titled ‘Hidden Faces of the Gulf Miracle’.

The report says the country will need up to 1 million additional workers to build 12 stadiums, 70,000 new hotel rooms and a network of road and railway links planned for the football extravaganza. Qatar’s 2010 census shows that it has 504,684 foreign construction workers—a majority of them being Nepalis.

Hundreds of thousands of construction workers have been drafted in to build mammoth projects related to World Cup infrastructure, according to the report. Most are from Nepal, India, Pakistan and other South Asia nations although the mix includes many other nationalities from Africa as well.
Being the second largest labour destination after Malaysia, Qatar had absorbed a total of 102,966 Nepali workers, including 313 females, in the last fiscal year, a growth of 84 percent compared to 55,940 in FY 2009-2010.

On an average, a Nepali construction worker earns $3,600 a year in Qatar—the richest country in the world in terms of per capita income with $88,000, according to the ITUC report.

The trend of leaving the country for job in Qatar has been increasing since February 2011, especially in the construction sector, which is known as dirty, difficult and dangerous. The Qatari government has already announced plans to improve conditions for migrant workers expected to flock in for the 2022 construction boom, including model housing complexes and tighter laws to prevent abuse.

“However, pressure will be on the world football body FIFA and the Western companies lining up for lucrative World Cup contracts to ensure that workers are provided with decent working, wage and housing conditions,” read the report.

Published on: 12 September 2011 | The Kathmandu Post